The tie-up, which was made public by head of India operations Manu Jain through social media posts, would be the first of its kind for the brand which was online only, till the year before.

"No other brand has ever sold phones at a supermarket chain," Jain said while making the announcement on Twitter on Wednesday.

"This journey started when I first met Mr Kishore Biyani few months ago to discuss a potential collaboration with the Future Group. During one of the brain storming sessions we agreed to try out something new - sell phones through Big Bazaar," he added.

Mi fans can buy Redmi 4 and Redmi Note 4 phones at special prices at Big Bazaar. Customers can also grab these phones through no cost EMI offers with Bajaj Finserv. Plus, special discount offers on all ICICI Bank credit card and debit card users.

Jain added that the phones will be available across 240 stores of the supermarket chain, but didn't specify whether the partnership would continue after the festival period ends after Diwali.

The company which ultimately wants to become an internet services platform provider in India, akin to the model it has in China, wants 30% of its sales to come from the offline market by the year end.

At present offline accounts for 20% of the sales in India, the rest coming from online including its own store Mi.com, which has doubled on-year.